Flowers Are Stars on White, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Life goes on. It’s hard to keep my thoughts off Katie Rose in the NICU, but I have work to do and other kids to take care of. Photography is therapy. It is fun. It keeps me strong.

I gathered these flowers from the garden and photographed them straight down on a light box. I knew I wanted a transparent look to bring out the colors in the petals, so the key was to overexpose. I started with a one second exposure at f/48 and ISO 100, which the camera thought was more or less spot on. It’s key in this kind of exposure combination, if you want a seamless look, to keep the f-stop constant. I then exposed at 2, 4, 8, and 15 seconds.

In Photoshop, starting with the 2 second exposure, I then piled on portions of each of the lighter exposures.

The black background below is an inversion of the luminance information in the photo, with the original version pasted back on top, followed by a little tweaking.

Flowers Are Stars on Black, photo by Harold Davis.View this image larger

[Both images: Nikon D300, 85mm PC macro (roughly, 127.5mm in 35mm terms), multiple captures with shutter speeds ranging from 2 to 15 seconds at f/48 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]